A teenage boy found delinquent for making repeated bomb threats against West Allis Central High School does not have to reimburse the school district for the cost of lost instructional time related to the incidents.

The District 1 State Court of Appeals in Milwaukee ruled earlier this month that state statutes do not entitle school districts to recover lost instructional time in court-ordered juvenile restitution.

The lost time was linked to the two student evacuations supervised by educational staff that followed the threats. The boy's name is confidential because he was not charged as an adult. He was only identified as a 16-year-old sophomore at the time of his arrest.

Bomb scares struck fear in the community during three consecutive days of threats in March 2016. The court's restitution decision provides previously unavailable details about the threats, as well as a ruling on restitution.

Students walk past the media and West Allis Central High School on March 9, 2016, after the school was evacuated when a bomb threat was called into the school.(Photo: Peter Zuzga)

Everyone will die

According to the decision, a written bomb threat appeared on a boys’ bathroom wall on Jan. 25, 2015, saying something like “there’s a bomb in the school, and everyone will die.” No related charges were issued that year.

On Feb. 4, 2016, the school received a phoned-in threat saying there was a bomb in the school and “everyone will die.” Investigators noticed the threat used the same words as the one from the previous year, “everyone will die.”

On March 7, 2016, the school received another phoned-in bomb threat and students were evacuated from the school. No bomb was discovered, according to decision.

The next day, the school secretary answered a call from a male who said, “there are bombs in the lockers.” She reported the call to police, and the school was again evacuated.

On March 9, another threat was called in, but that scare was unrelated to those linked to the 16 year old. A 17 year old and a 15 year old would be later charged in connection with the March 9 threat. The appeals decision deals only with the incidents linked to the 16 year old.

Suspicious texts

Police began to suspect the 16 year old based on "suspicious texts" from him to two female students and that the cell calls came from inside the school, according to the decision.

During the investigation, the 16 year old's mother allowed police to search her son's cell phone and gave police its password. Based on what police learned, the teenager was arrested the next day, and he confessed during questioning to making the threats, according to the decision.

The state filed a delinquency petition on March 14, 2016, charging two counts of bomb scares, based on the phoned-in bomb threats. He was found delinquent on both counts and placed under supervision by the Milwaukee County Department of Human Services for one year.

At a restitution hearing, the court set the school district’s losses at $18,363.78, but found the teenager only had the ability to pay $3,000. Restitution for that amount was ordered on Jan. 26, 2017.

The lower court agreed with the state about the three areas of loss for which restitution was appropriate — lost instructional time in the amount of $17,776.80; lost food service worker cost of $370; and lost custodial worker cost of $216.98, for a total of $18,363.78, according to the decision.

No award

The teenager's lawyer "argues that the juvenile restitution statute does not permit an award of this type (lost instructional time) even though the adult restitution statute does," according to the decision.

The appeals court confirmed the restitution obligation for $370 and $216.98, Yet, the appeals court found "the juvenile restitution statute is much more limited than the adult statute," according to the decision.

The juvenile restitution statute says that if the juvenile is found to have committed a delinquent act that resulted in damage to the property of another or actual physical injury to another, excluding pain and suffering, (the judge may) order the juvenile to repair the damage to property or to make restitution, according to the decision.

"There is no Wisconsin case that has held that the juvenile statute includes payment for the value of time or even lost wages," according to the decision.

Here, the legislature certainly could have used the same language in the juvenile restitution statute that it did in the adult statute. But, at least up until now, it has not done so, according to the decision.

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